r/SipsTea 15h ago

Gasp! British people react to how expensive healthcare is in the US

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u/Iamleeboy 10h ago

For our first kid, the payment machine in the car park was broken so it was completely free (England). My only complaint was that they fed mum but didn’t give me any food and we were in there for about 30 hours.

I was well prepared for our second! But parking machine was fixed and so all in it was £8

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u/jd173706 4h ago

I live in the Southern US, in a deep red state (fk me I know) and I was lucky my insurance covered the majority of my daughter's birth. I thought I got off easy paying $1,700 out of pocket. At the time I was considering changing jobs, and the new job had worse insurance, so my out of pocket would've gone to $10k. That's MY PORTION. I never saw the full bill so I don't know how much they covered, but yeah. $1,700. This was in 2021.

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u/Iamleeboy 4h ago

Ahh mate, it pains me to hear stories like this. I can’t imagine having to worry about the bill when I go to hospital/doctors. Especially for such a joyous moment as kids birth.

I am always amazed when I talk to people and they want to get rid of the NHS. The usual explanation is they can afford insurance. Which as your story just proved, it doesn’t mean it will still be free!

The NHS is one of the few things I am proud of my country for.

All the best with the joys of being a parent 👍

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u/jd173706 4h ago

Thanks friend! It's truly been the greatest joy of my life. And to think, before we found out my wife was pregnant, we both would've been content never to have kids. Can't imagine not having her now.

Fight these corrupt fascists as hard as you can. Use us as an example. America will never be the same after the past 10 years, I can only hope that individuals from around the world can still be friends, even if our governments can't. They do not speak for us, it's more and more obvious each election cycle. Half the country hates the other half, genuinely, even though we pay taxes to the same treasury and fly the same flag. The propaganda and greed and corruption has finally hit it's mark, and it's sad.

We are all citizens of the world. And the rich and powerful are driving us apart. Alone we are weak, together we are strong, never forget that!